Oskar Blues' East Coast Expansion By Anne Fitten
Glenn

Oskar Blues’ East Coast expansion
brewery opened on 12/12/12 in the beautiful mountain town of Brevard, 33 miles
west of famed beer city, Asheville. Why Brevard? Easy access to gnarly
single-track in Pisgah National Forest for bike-centric staff and MTB-addict and
Oskar Blues Soul Founder, Dale Katechis.

Both the first brew day (Dale’s Pale Ale, of course) and the Tasty Weasel
Taproom opening took place on the same day as 200-barrel fermentation tanks were
rolling in. Since then the brewery that was founded as funky brewpub in Lyons,
Colorado in 1997, has grown explosively—the NC brewery packaged 65,000 barrels
in 2014 and now sends cans labeled Brevard, North Carolina to 19 East Coast
states (Oskar Blues distributes to 41 states).

The Tasty Weasel is open seven
days a week from noon to 8 p.m., and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The
Weasel features 16 taps, including all of Oskar Blues regular line-up of brews
plus specialty beers available only at the brewery. Beer lovers can also find
live music three to four days a week (always on weekends) and the Oskar Blues
CHUBwagon food truck serving farm to truck burgers and hand-cut fries every
Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Oskar Blues Brewery NC may be a little off the beer-beaten track in Western NC,
but it’s a scenic back road trip from Sierra Nevada’s newly opened expansion
brewery and right near lager specialist, Brevard Brewing Company.

*Full disclosure: while Anne Fitten Glenn, author of Asheville Beer: An
Intoxicating History of Mountain Brewing, continues to write about craft
beer and breweries, she does actually work for Oskar Blues Brewery at the
North Carolina location as the Beer Communicatrix.